Happy Anniversary to Eric!

I'm sorry this picture isn't better. Eric celebrated his sixth anniversary at GIS at the annual staff appreciation dinner. Only two others were in their sixth year and there were also only a handful of others (out of a staff of more than a hundred) who had been at GIS longer than six years. The staff appreciation dinner was yet another event that reminded us about how much we'll miss our community here. We sat at a table with good friends and had such a good time that we decided to continue the evening at a local restaurant.

Mmmm, sounds good!

New at 7-11!

The Houseboat

The houseboat is a popular destination for expats in our community whenever you want to go away for a day or two very cheaply. There is a reservoir about an hour from CM where many locals run houseboat motels. These houseboats are probably not up to code by American standards (thank goodness it's made all of wood-it won't sink), there is only electricity for a few hours a day, and the bathrooms are somewhat hard to use, but it's quite peaceful. Kids usually spend all day swimming or boating and at night adults usually play games and enjoy the beautiful starlight. The meals cooked right on the houseboat are made of the freshest fish caught raised right in the reservoir and it only costs about $30 for our family (food and boat ride to the houseboat included). We've gone twice in the last month-once with some teachers at the school and again for the party of Stanley's twin brothers.We'll miss these easy getaways. We've gone twice in the last month-once with some teachers at the school and again for the party of Stanley's twin brothers.

Getting rid of junk

We are now officially in moving mode. I have already gone through many spaces to get rid of the excess. Gabe & I have been playing a game that is essentially to get him to give away a lot of his toys. So far, he's really enjoying it but I have a sneaking suspicion that all the clearing up I've done is only what you'd do for a regular move, not a continental move.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We've been married 11 years! This is exactly a month late, of course. I haven't been very good about blogging lately, but it's mostly due to the poor connection we have here. Anyway, we had a nice anniversary at a very strange hotel. We enjoyed our usual tradition of watching a the most terrible movie we could find. Our choice of movie, Glen or Glenda? by Ed Wood truly lived up to (or down to) our expecatations.

Back to Blogging

Life is finally getting back to normal after my infection. I'm sorry I didn't keep updating but in some ways the cure was worse than the disease and I didn't have a whole lot of energy to do anything. A couple of days after my last post I was still having pain in my ear and my doctor put me on steroids. Taking steroids was a strange and sleepless experience. About a week into April, just after we started our long April break for the Thai new year, a new CT scan showed that the infection was clear. The next day we went to our annual group conference for a week where Eric & I got colds. I was finally able to finish my medications last week. It's nice to be off antibiotics for the first time in four months. It's great to have so much more energy especially as we get ready to go back to America in less than two months. Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for me.